Many packaging processes require that caps be sorted from a bulk of randomly oriented cap to a row of similarly oriented caps. A type of commonly used caps includes a cap end wall that will eventually extend across an aperture of a container and a cap peripheral wall that extends away therefrom.
One type of cap sorter uses a belt that forms a loop. In use, the belt will travel along the loop. Part of the loop, called hereinbelow the cap receiving portion, passes below the bulk caps, typically at a slanted angle. The next portion of the loop is close to vertical and is referred to hereinbelow as the sorting portion. Cleats are secured to the belt, generally perpendicularly to the direction of travel of the loop, facing the unsorted cap in the portion of the loop that is below the bulk caps. The distance between the cleats is selected to be approximately equal to the diameter of the end wall. In use, caps that fall between two adjacent cleats in the pickup portion can fall either with their end wall close to the belt, or with their end wall away from the belt. When the belt moves so that these caps are in the sorting portion, only the caps that have their end wall adjacent the belt will remain on the belt, between the cleats. All caps between adjacent cleats that have their end wall away from the belt fall back towards the pickup portion due to the cleats having a thickness small enough that the center of gravity of the caps is then further away from the belt than the thickness of the cleats. Caps that are not engaged between two cleats also fall back to the pickup portion due to gravity.
If the belt is wide enough, many caps can abut downwardly against a single cleat. This is usually not a problem and may even be desirable as this increases the throughput of the cap sorter. Such rows of caps are fed to a chute at the top of the sorting portion so that the oriented caps can be used in other packaging steps. However, the chute feeding mechanism would usually be disturbed if caps became superposed on top of each other between adjacent cleats. To that effect, the cleats are distanced along the belt by a distance that is similar or only slightly larger than the end wall diameter.
When a particular cap sorter is needed for use in processes in which the caps have largely different diameters, the distance between the cleats needs to be changed. This may require removal of all cleats from the belt and reattachment thereto at a different spacing. In some cap sorters, this may require changing the belt completely with a different one having cleats differently spaced apart from each other. Both types of operation a time consuming.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved cap sorter. It is a general objective of the present invention to provide such a cap sorter.